


Waiting at Your Backdoor

by Cheyalinn_of_Tafth



Series: The Stakes are High, the Water's Rough, but this Love is Ours [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, POV Tsukishima Kei, TsukkiYama Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:14:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26074750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheyalinn_of_Tafth/pseuds/Cheyalinn_of_Tafth
Summary: Kei watches his neighbor, his cute neighbor that he totally does have a crush on, walk home. Until said crush had someone walk him home. Until said crush paces home, crying.
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Series: The Stakes are High, the Water's Rough, but this Love is Ours [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891918
Comments: 4
Kudos: 81
Collections: TsukkiYama Week 2020





	Waiting at Your Backdoor

**Author's Note:**

> cheya here!! i hope yall are doing okay, and please keep safe!!
> 
> Tsukkiyama Week 2020 Day 2  
> NEIGHBORS  
> ~based on [Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me"](https://open.spotify.com/track/4kgTdThcDHfuDS2kKxB7Lc?si=W_oEIaeXSR6b1RuzlxuDGw) from the album _Fearless_.

Kei has a cute neighbor.

He does not like snooping in on other people’s businesses. He also does not like going out of the house if he does not need to. But then, he has a cute neighbor, and that neighbor’s name was Yamaguchi Tadashi.

Kei moved his study table directly by the window, just so he was able to get a glimpse of Tadashi going home from school.

Kei does not know why he did that since they go to the same high school anyway, but they are no means the bestest of friends, so to speak. They talk in person, sure, when they see each other out, or when they were asked by their respective mothers to share food with the neighbor.

And because Tsukishima cannot even ask for the other boy’s LINE username, he resorted into doing something weird.

After seeing Tadashi walk by his house, he started writing on a notebook, a simple, “Oi.” Tsukishima opened his bedroom window, one that can see straight to Yamaguchi’s own already opened ones. He waited for Yamaguchi to enter his bedroom before holding up the notebook with a sign.

Tadashi looked tired but he considerably lit up when he saw Tsukishima. He immediately took out a notebook and a market to respond, “Tired.”

Then, this started all the flipping of pages and the screeching of markers on paper.

“Exams?”

“Too hard!”

“Go. Eat.”

“Nope. Talking to you.”

“Yamaguchi.”

“Tsukki.”

“Just a few more?”

“Fine.”

“Thanks, Tsukki!”

“Sure.”

“I plan to confess.”

“To your crush?”

“Yeah! A senpai.”

“When?”

“After the last exam!”

“Okay.”

“Left a note in his locker. To meet me.”

“Tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah!”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks, Tsukki!”

“Eat now.”

“Okay!”

“See you tomorrow, Yamaguchi.”

“See ya!”

With a wave, Tadashi closed his window and Kei can no longer see him. After closing his own window, Kei placed the notebook and the marker haphazardly on his bedside table before jumping onto the bed. 

Trying to ignore the sudden tightening of his chest, he took the remote control from the nightstand and opened his bedroom television to some nature documentary about birds. 

It’s not like he has no other people besides Tadashi. At school, he was doing alright with his clubmates. Yachi talks to him from time to time, and then Kageyama and Hinata attempt to bother him when examinations are on the horizon. He was alright with that.

But the thought of his particular cute neighbor being held, being kissed, being embraced by some other guy that was not him, caused something ugly to grow in the middle of his chest. Kei does not like it, yet he does not know what to do with it either.

So, he did what he can. He slept in order for tomorrow to come faster.

* * *

Tomorrow arrived, of course, it did because the world will keep on spinning whatever Kei might do or don’t do. 

It’s just like that. Such is life and Kei had to go around performing like he normally does, brushing his teeth well like he normally does, going to school in time like he normally does, and pack his lunches properly like he normally does. Today, though, is a weird exception.

Kei seemed to have lost his focus right when he opened his eyes. It was horrible, and Kei could not pinpoint the root cause of this. Well, maybe because he was distracted to begin with. He failed to comprehend why he was being so clumsy and out of it until the latter half of lunchtime.

He realized what has been happening to him when Tadashi swung by his classroom. This was something so rare – if it was not, Kei would not have to resort to almost running home every afternoon just so he can wait for the shorter boy through his bedroom window. If Tadashi decided to talk to him at school, then it must really be important.

“I’m getting so nervous, Tsukki!” Tadashi muttered as Kei went out of his classroom to meet him. “Wh-what if he does not show up?”

“Then he must not deserve to hear your feelings.”

“Oh.”

“I just can’t keep still.”

“Think of other things.”

“Eh? Like what?”

They talk like how they do across their bedroom windows. It oddly calmed Kei’s disturbed feelings, putting him into perspective. He realized that the least he wanted now is to change things. The least he wanted now was for Tadashi to move away, or talk to him less, or get together with a senpai he barely knew.

“Like what I’m going to tell you after you meet your senpai.”

“He… He’s not m-my…”

“Think about it, Yamaguchi.”

Tadashi raised his head, too look at him, and only him, and the shorter boy’s eyes shined. “Okay, Tsukki.”

The bell rang. Kei wished it didn’t.

“I’ll go back now!”

Before Kei can even respond, Tadashi was gone. Sighing, he walked back to his seat, ignoring the looks he got from his classmates just for having a friend and actually talking to someone so willingly.

Kei wanted Tadashi took at him, maybe most of the time, and this situation just endangers all that.

But then, that very same day, Kei did not see Tadashi go home in time. Instead he saw him through his bedroom window walking past the Tsukishima house to the Yamaguchi house, an hour later than he usually does, with a bigger, taller guy walking beside him.

The senpai walked him home. Something clawed at Kei’s chest.

* * *

It did not stay there long. The clawing and the aching in his chest.

It was temporary, maybe a few days. That was because Tadashi barely talked to him after that. They still exchange notes when Tadashi catches his bedroom windows open but that was just… that, and Kei tried his best to keep them closed the days that came afterwards.

But the one window above his study table remained open. And he can see Tadashi, a solid, full month after the last time, walking home. The senpai was walking behind him as he talked but Tadashi is not looking back. Kei noticed the angry strides. Ah.

Feeling absolutely petty and maybe a little jealous and something else, he stood up and opened his bedroom window that saw through Tadashi’s, and then he waited. With a notebook, and a marker. He started to write.

So when Tadashi entered his room with his face all downcast, the door closed with a bang. He was on the verge of tears when he saw Kei standing from the other house, holding up his notebook.

“You okay?”

Tadashi looked surprised, started crying, and took out his own notebook. A few moments later, he held up his reply.

“Don’t worry, Tsukki!”

“You’re crying.”

“No.”

“You are.”

“A little, I guess.”

“Wrong answer. Try again.”

“Fine. I am.”

Kei must have been out of his mind when he wrote his reply to Tadashi. “Meet me downstairs.”

Tadashi’s reply was hasty, “Okay, Tsukki!”

And so they were awkwardly standing in front of each other by their houses, five minutes later. Tadashi’s eyes were puffy from crying, and Kei wished he had some kind of handkerchief with him.

So, he resorted with lending his sweater sleeve, wordlessly. Tadashi looked at it for a second before he pressed his eyes against Kei’s arm, nuzzling it a little so that the tears were wiped away.

Kei thought the action was cute.

“Let’s go to the park,” Kei said, and they started to walk.

They were both silent on the way, just their footsteps against the coarse ground, and Kei does not have anything to say that could not wait. He can wait and somehow, right at this moment, he was made vaguely aware that he has been waiting all along.

Tadashi brightened up upon seeing the deserted park, heading straight for the swings, sitting on one of them almost immediately, gripping the chains with each hand. He rocked himself a little bit, watching Kei sit down on the other swing, his long legs not permitting him to do some kind of swinging.

“I broke it off with senpai,” Tadashi suddenly said, the chains creaking a little bit. “I could not get along with him. There were a lot of things about me that he simply could not understand.”

“So, you really dated him.”

“I… I don’t know. He did not reject me when I confessed, he… He did not ask me to go out either. Maybe he just pitied me a little and tried if he can actually be with someone like me,” sighed Tadashi with a sad smile. “But I guess it’s my fault, too.”

“No, it’s not. He’s the jerk.”

Kei did not expect that Tadashi would laugh at this. Tadashi was laughing and chuckling and looked at Kei with his eyes all twinkly. It was adorable, but Tadashi was shaking his head now. “It’s not that! I think I got it all wrong. I think I liked him because he reminded me of someone else. Spending time with senpai made me realize that I was trying to redirect what I feel for someone to well, someone else. It was a little bit frustrating, to be honest.”

“That’s shitty.”

“I know, Tsukki. I sucked.”

“You did not. It was a mistake. We become shitty and make shitty choices when it comes to the things that live in our chests.”

“Oh?” Tadashi’s grin turned sly. “You have feelings for someone, huh, Tsukki?”

Kei eyed him, “What? Do you think I’m made of concrete?”

“No, nothing like that! It’s just… unexpected.”

“It’s not.”

“Do I know this person?”

“Maybe you do. Sometimes you don’t,” smirked Kei.

Tadashi frowned, “Is that a riddle? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Sure it does.”

“Maybe I know this person… but sometimes I don’t? Like do I sometimes forget how people are like and maybe sure that I know them at the same time?” He was deep in thought, and Kei looked up the sky, basking in the silence and Tadashi. Just… Tadashi.

“Hmm… If this turns out to be something so obvious, I’ll smack you, Tsukki.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I totally would.”

“Nah, you’re too kind to me and you really have this tendency to spoil me a lot. Do you really not know that about yourself?”

This froze Tadashi. He then, looked at Kei. “Oh. Is it me, Tsukki?”

“Of course,” Kei could not hide how his voice trembled at that. “As if there can be anyone else.”

“Right,” Tadashi laughed but it was monotone. “That… That makes sense now. I… I am sorry, then, Tsukki. I was with senpai all this time when I could have just… Ah… I really feel bad now.”

“Don’t.”

“But Tsukki.”

“Don’t ruin it.”

“Oh…” Tadashi smiled. “Okay. So, you were waiting for me, huh, Tsukki?”

“Hmm.”

“I like that. It makes me happy.”

“Then don’t do anything else again. Just… be with me. Or… or something. Whatever you want,” Kei looked away, his face overheating with immense embarrassment.

“Whatever I want? Then, I’m going to be with you, Tsukki. It’s where I belong all this time, right? It’s funny how we tried to keep a space between us all the time. We don’t talk much at school, and we talk through our bedroom windows at home.”

“I thought I would really… really make a mess if I get too close.”

“Same.”

“Oh,” replied Kei, lamely. “Right. That makes a lot of sense.”

“It does now, right?” Tadashi giggled. “Please tell me we can just have sleepovers instead of writing on our notebooks.”

“Depends. I’ll let you sleep beside me if you let me be your boyfriend,” challenged Kei, feeling bold just this instance. Just a little bit.

“Yes, Tsukki! Of course. As if… as if there’s anyone else now, or in the future… if you… if you think of that now. I think Tsukki is a person who likes to plan things out and see things through till the end. So, if you like me, then you must think of me being with you until after high school, or college, or until any other thing we want to do.”

Kei stood up, he took Tadashi’s hand in him and pulled him onto his feet. And in one motion, he took Tadashi in his arms and into an embrace. Tadashi laughed as he hugged Kei back. The air felt somehow lighter and Kei, well, he was proven right that this right here is where they both belong.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! please dont forget to drop me a comment or kudos if u liked it 🥺🥺 it means a lot 🥺🥺🥺


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